Caroline Wawzonek

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I want to speak a bit about the opportunity I had to be on the committee. I was very grateful to be on the committee. It was an honour to be on with this committee dealing with this topic. It was an interesting I mean, I'm new to the Assembly, this is my first time here, but it was clear even so that this was something being done very differently to have both Members of Cabinet and other and MLAs all on one committee working together figuring out the process by which we would do that. So it wasn't just about what, you know, Cabinet would do, or what Ministers...

In favour.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, contract reporting is already being improved. The dashboard that I mentioned just a couple of responses ago has just gone live this month so I can appreciate that stakeholders, businesses, may not necessarily be familiar with it yet. Certainly, you know, I encourage them to go and look at that as a resource. It's an opportunity to get more information out and to get it out in one place. But, Mr. Speaker, the real core of what I'm hearing in the last question around frustration, you know, I think everyone understands, and can probably share some of the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yes, there have been some incremental changes, some interim changes already in place. One in particular I want to highlight the Vendor Performance Management Program. There's a few phases to this.

Essentially when we are going to be changing procurement, if we're not monitoring how vendors are doing and how those contracts are unfolding, it's going to be very difficult to ensure that we're either incentivizing or dealing with any lack or failure to deal with what was being said in the contracts. So we've ruled this out first phase last June for construction...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there is a fairly generous leave package that has a number of different ways by which employees are able to take leave, both paid leave/unpaid leave, and the focus and the intent is that individuals have an opportunity to look at what their particular needs and circumstances are and can then apply to their supervisor for applicable leave. There's not a specific section within that particular for fertility benefits or fertility treatments. But, again, you know, the idea here that I'm trying to get at with that is that although we don't have that specifically...

Mr. Speaker, I completely agree. I'm happy to say that vendor performance management has been something that the auditor, or the Office of the Comptroller General has been working on since early days of this Assembly and, indeed, it's one of the areas where there's already been some progress. Construction contracts over $250,000 are already being monitored to ensure their compliance. But as this procurement review goes forward, I anticipate that that system and that process for monitoring will only improve. Obviously once we know exactly what we are going to be monitoring at the final...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, that was really the purpose of the procurement review in the first place, is to ensure that we are maximizing benefits to northern businesses. Some of the challenges of the procurement review include how we define northern business, how we identify northern business, how we identify or define an Indigenous business, and that's why the procurement review has gone through the process it has with a lot of careful consultation across the entirety of the Northwest Territories, including with modern treaty holders and Indigenous governments. Thank you, Mr...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, at this point the answer is no, that that has not been added or included specifically as an area where there might be some expansion of the leave packages. Obviously the leave packages are part of the bargaining process in the collective agreement. Right now, if there's specific health benefits or health treatments, those are done with approvals by a qualified medical practitioner. So in line with the questions that were asked earlier of the Department of Health, there won't be any sort of additional you know, we won't be seeking additional approvals if...

Mr. Speaker, this too has been the subject of the review itself and is subject of discussion amongst those participating in the various reviews, both during the review formally and since in terms of discussions with businesses and Indigenous governments. There's opportunities both for the potential for penalties. There's also potentially the opportunity for incentives. And I'm not going to commit one way or the other at this point. I'm not going to jump to the conclusion of where the review's going to go other than to say that there does need to be a way by where once an analysis has been done...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there are Crown corporations who are not subject to the same procurement rules as the GNWT. For example, the NTPC does follow their own procurement rules. That said, they are guided and fairly closely align with what the GNWT does. So certainly I expect that they will benefit as well from the work that we are doing and can certainly follow my colleagues who are also responsible for the various corporations to see that we are working towards being as consistent with one with the other as possible. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.